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"Will Americans vote for a black man or a white woman", you ask? We'll, let's examine the facts. It appears as if they already have, if you want to count the primaries as part of our presidential electoral process. Millions of people have cast their ballots for a black man and a white woman, so the better question might be, "Is a black man or a white woman likely to be elected to the highest office in the land"? Maybe.

My mother grew up in the south. Waycross, Georgia, to be exact, and I can remember from my trips to visit my grandmother how vastly the situation has changed down there. On one road trip back in the early sixties, coming from Long Island driving down the old route 95 heading to Georgia, there is a memory ingrained in my mind which will help to illustrate to some of the younger people in our audience just how far we have come in this great country.

We were at a rest stop in South Carolina, and while I was very young, I could still read. We pulled our '57 Chevy into the service area and got out to use the restrooms. My father took my hand, and I saw a building which looked as if it would be the bathroom, only it said "Colored Restrooms". I said to my father (a WWII veteran who emigrated to this country from Italy in 1929),"Dad, what does that sign mean?" He didn't say anything, and just guided me towards another building which had a sign which read "White Restrooms".

It wasn't until years later that I realized what was going on in the south, even as recently as the sixties, which doesn't seem that long ago to me now. But in terms of progress, it was eons ago. People were still recovering from the Civil War back then, or still fighting the Civil War, which would be a better way of putting it.

So here we are in 2008, and the democrats will have on their ticket either a black man or a white woman running for president, and they will both get millions of votes, regardless of whom the nominee is for the democratic party. Or, maybe they'll team up and run together. Will the majority of Americans vote for them? It's a very good possibility, one for which I think this country is finally ready for.

So the short answer is, yes, Americans will vote for a black man or a white woman. And one day, hopefully in my lifetime, either one will get elected as president. Such an event would mean so much to so many people. It would mean most to the people who fought and died for our freedoms. Let us never take those freedoms for granted.

God Bless America!

Learn more about this author, Barry Girolamo.
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